Today, the use of e-mails sent through a data transmission network such as Internet is widespread. When the sender of an e-mail sends an e-mail to a recipient, the action is immediate and, unless a problem is encountered between the servers of the sender and recipient, the e-mail is delivered in the recipient's mailbox without any control by the sender of when it should be delivered.
This is a problem if the sender wants to send information to a receiver but wants the information to be delivered only after a given date or after some predetermined criteria are met, and wants the contents and destination of the e-mail to remain confidential. Such a situation can occur, for example, if the sender wants to provide information to someone only after his death or provide some advantages to someone only after a predefined date.
Japanese patent application 2001-223734 describes a system wherein the transmission of an e-mail by a sender is delayed and the e-mail is kept in a sender Message Transfer Agent (MTA) during a delay period. However, such a system wherein the e-mail is kept by the sender does not allow the confidentiality of both sender and receiver to be maintained. Furthermore, there is no possibility of destroying the e-mail if the sender decides not to send it.